I'm not a Flex developer...and here's one reason why
A lot of my ColdFusion and PHP developer friends like to tell me that I should become a Flex developer. I have various reasons why I haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, but here's one of the biggest reasons:
Enough said.
Jake Munson
34 Yrs old
A flex application is far faster than a ColdFusion one. Once the app is loaded there is no constant load reload between navigation.
Since the flex framework is built into the player now, it means it's only your code loading and not the framework. So it is going to be small.
I have to agree with your friends.
There is one valid reason not to use flex, and that is for a public facing site that you want indexed by search engines.
It's a matter of perception. I don't want my site's visitors to have a bad first impression of my site based on the fact that it initially loads slow. You have valid arguments, but we all know it's hard to change a person's first impression.
By the way, it's not a matter of ColdFusion vs. Flex. Flex is a client application and people often use a server language lke ColdFusion along with Flex.
I guess your whole post was a bit vague...do you not like the way the loader looks, or the fact that the application has to load at all....because everything has to be loaded on the internet, and the loader is infinitely skinnable / stylable
haha, that's funny. Because I am today launching a website targeted at just that Flex and CF working together.
I wasn't suggesting you drop CF, I was suggesting I agree with your friends and you should learn Flex.
Even though an app with Flash 9 installed takes 5 seconds to load, plus sometimes another 5 seconds to initialise or download its graphics/data, because you're looking at progress bar it emphasis the fact that you're waiting and therefore feels slow. And while it then downloads its content you're looking at an empty app void of text and graphics. With a DHTML app you see content loading immediately - having things to look at, even if its piece by piece gives your brain something to do and the time spent waiting goes past much quicker.
I'm not sure of the benefits of spending months learning a new language if I can already create visually strong and dynamic web apps using DHTML (and all those wonderful JS libs). Is there a WYSIWYG IDE that can write the Flex code for me while I drag the GUI components I need onto a canvas and select how each one reacts when users click on it? I think I'm after Dreamweaver for Flex. Does it exist and is it cheap?
@Dale Flex Framework isn't built it but is 'cachable' and shared between multiple applications what use the same version of the framework.
there are a lot of ways to optimize a Flex app initial loading, using the framework caching is one of them.
If that is the case I can wait a few seconds before it boots up since I know the end result... not like I am coming to some site and going to move away from it if it takes a couple of seconds to load.
I mean it takes my mac a few minutes to boot up but that doesn't mean I shut it off because I don't want to wait.
J.J.
Is it possible to turn off the "Loading..." box? Jake could use that instead so his users get what they are used to.
You can provide your own pre loader class using the preLoader property of the Application tag.
If you provide one that doesn't draw anything, you've 'turned it off', but now your users will moan it 'just sits there not doing anything'.
I think you should get a 60 day trial version of Flex 3 Builder and give it a try. I've done some little stuff (325k swf). I am able to retrieve and rendering 7000 rows in 5-7 seconds in a data grid. This would be impossible in html. If you think this is too much data, then it can also bring back any 'page' (600 rows) in 1-2 seconds. I would suggest you to read more and give it a try. This doesn't replace ColdFusion, since that is my backend (app server) to my database. It's just 2 more languages to learn...:)
@jake - as far as the loading of a site goes with Flex... you can make the loading fun and dynamic, http://www.2advanced.com/ has a pretty slick way of loading their site. I don't buy that the extra few seconds to load an app is enough reason to discount a technology entirely.... There are many things that Flex can do which traditional DHTML sites can not (without smoke and mirrors), for example, server side data pushing, etc...
I don't know how to answer all your arguments for Flex, other than to say that each developer has to chose his language. If all of you guys want to use Flex, great! That's your perogative. I chose not to.
Does Flex have a lot of cool things in it? Yes, I know it does. But does it also have some warts? Yes, it does. You guys can spin the warts as "cute" or "not really a problem" all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that they're warts. If you talk to a level headed Flex developer, they'll admit that Flex has it's problems. Those problems turn me away from being a Flex developer. If those problems aren't big enough to turn you guys away, have at it! I'm not going to try to stop you from loving life as a Flex developer.
Here's an analogy: my co-worker Jason wears a shirt today that I would never wear. I think to myself "boy, I'd never wear that shirt in a million years, but if Jason likes it, it's fine with me." If I read your last comment right, that's sort of how you feel about Flex. Now, I could just keep my opinion to myself about Jason's shirt and be "live and let live". But if I go up to him and say "Hey Jason, I don't like your shirt!" I'd better be prepared to get a reaction.
I think it's more like this: I wear a shirt that says on the front "I will never wear a black shirt". This way people know not to give me a black shirt for my birthday. Or in relation to my Flex comments, people know not to tell me I should be a Flex developer, and one of the reasons why I don't like the idea of being a Flex developer.
flex is something else. to get flex effect(web 2.0). just combine CF + Ajax.
flex is slow! admit it
@Arowolo M.A - AJAX can never do the things that Flex can. If you think the CF8 AJAX stuff is going to change that, then you and Jake here are both guzzling the Kool-Aid.
As far as this, "AJAX can never do the things that Flex can", Ajax (combined with JS frameworks like jQuery) can already do most of the things that Flex can. There are a few exceptions, one of which is pushing content to the browser. But even that is currently being worked on by the standards bodies, and will hopefully come to the browsers down the road. In the mean time, for projects where I need to update the browser from the server, I just use Ajax to periodically poll the server for updates (which, by the way, is how GMail works).
You obviously don't understand Flex / ActionScript if you think that Ajax can do everything that Flex can.
You can do anything you like prety much in Flex especially if you combine it with Air.
I could think of a lot of examples, but just to highlight my point, how would Ajax do something like a 3D interface with Papervision?
I did NOT say that Ajax can do everything that Flex can, I said it can do MOST of what Flex can. As to your 3D/Papervision example, when SVG gains more browser coverage, we will be able to do things like that using standard markup. For example, if you view this page in Firefox (doesn't work in IE):
http://www.isthis4real.com/orbit.xml
You will see a simple example of what can be done with standard SVG markup.